Federal Writers' Project – Life Histories/2021/Fall/Section018/Anonymous Gambler

Biography
A nameless gambler was born and raised in North Carolina. He chose to keep his place of origin as well as his name anonymous; however, his gambling life began when he was a child. His mother provided him with an ample amount of spending money which she had gotten from her being a sporting woman. He often skipped school and spent time around gamblers who taught him everything they knew about gambling. Even though he would oftentimes be kicked out of places that he enjoyed going to for being too young, they eventually let him stick around which allowed him the opportunity to observe and learn. This marked the beginning of his addiction to taking advantage of people through gambling. Once he became an adult, he hosted games in a rented space which he earned money from. A lawyer coerced him into providing him with a share of his earnings by threatening to have him arrested for hosting a gambling site, but offered his protection from the law if he cooperated. This potentially hints at different cases of political corruption at the time considering the fact that the lawyer used his power in order to take advantage of him. Even though the gambling site would provide a good sum of money, he did not feel comfortable with having to pay someone every week as it was the only source of income that he had to live off of. On top of the money that he would have to pay the lawyer, the interviewee explained that he soon after lost $1,500 in one gambling session. One night, he urged a couple of guys to play for some money, but used his weighted dice instead so that he could try and manipulate their chances of winning. Even though the dice were different, it did not necessarily improve his chances of winning but made it harder to get perfect rolls. Luck had not been on his side that night and no matter how much he played, he could to seem to win anything. Gambling is so dangerous because once people win, there is a possibility that they will become greedy and want to win even more; however, if they lose, they may want to win back what they lost. This is why he regretted ever indulging in gambling.

Gambling
Gambling is often associated with a negative connotation and described to be something that is bad in terms of winning based off of another person’s loss, usually in the terms of money. Even though it is thought to be mainly involved with cards and dice, gambling can happen in any form of competition or event that has an uncertain outcome and does not even have to involve material gain. This is why gamling is thought to be something that is natural among humans. There is also the misconception that gambling is morally wrong, which also may not be the case. Even though someone may lose something from gambling, no one forces them to participate and the stakes do not even need to be significant. It is something that can simply be seen as some form of entertainment, which also makes it dangerous. Gambling can start out as something simple, but naturally, the more and more people win, the more and more people will want to test their luck, even with higher stakes. This can result in people going into debt and writing checks that they cannot cash. This is exactly what happened to the interviewee and why he wishes to never have partaken in gambling to the extent that he did growing up.

Political Corruption
The other social issue prevalent in the interviewee’s story is the idea of political or governmental corruption. This is the idea that people in power take bribes, coerce, and even cooperate with other figures in power to gain something such as money or even more power. In the case of the interviewee, hosting a gambling site without a license or some sort of documentation was illegal and had been addressed by a lawyer. Even though it was illegal and he could be arrested for it, the lawyer proposed that the interviewee give him a portion of the money he earns from his gambling site every week in order to receive protection from the law, which he agreed to. Not only is the gambler getting away breaking the law, he is able to get away with it by giving no more than a lump sum of money. If people in power are able to get away with extorting citizens, there is nothing that disproves the idea that more serious instances of corruption had been going on at that time.